Conatus
by ThinkButThis
Summary: Following Silver Borne. What happens when a powerful figure from the past turns up? What trouble does she bring? Spoilers for Silver Borne, and yes, there is an OC.
1. Chapter 1

It's hard trying to get your life back together after you've been missing for a month. But that's just what I was trying to do.

I had been the faerie queen's attempt at a thrall for about that long in the real world. For me it had been a few days at best but time passes differently in Elphame.

So now I was playing catch-up and I hated it. Thankfully, I had had Zee and Gabriel to run the shop for me so I hadn't lost business or customers or completely lost my only source of income. But there was still the matter of my completed destroyed trailer that had gone up in flames thanks both to the Faerie Queen's lackeys and some of Adam's pack members. I was lucky that my boyfriend, the Alpha of the local werewolf pack, lived right next door.

I still felt it was too soon to move in with him because I knew it would cause too much strain in the pack, many of whom still felt that allowing me, a coyote, in meant trouble for the whole group. But I could stay there until I got back on my feet.

I was sitting in the kitchen playing Scrabble with Jesse, Adam's Daughter, and two of Adam's wolves – Warren, his third and one of my best friends and Ben, who ranked pretty low and was always a bother due to his language and opinions on women. He had gotten a bit better these past few months but sometimes you really did just want to hit him.

I was so zoned out I missed what had caused the current argument between the two wolves. From what I could tell, Ben had tried to play a word that Warren didn't feel was appropriate or a real world and the scrabble dictionary was on the table with the latter flipping through pages madly. I was just about to ask Jessie, who was trying her hardest not to laugh, when my phone rang.

"Mercy." The voice on the other end of the line said before I even had a chance to say hello. It was Stefan. I hadn't seen or heard from my vampire friend (could I call him that or was he more like an acquaintance?) in a few months. After Marseilla, the Seethe leader, had tortured Stefan for her own personal gain a few months ago, he had broken away from the other vampires and had been recovering and doing his own thing from what I understood.

"Stefan? What's the matter?" I may not have talked to him in a while but I could tell from the tone of his voice that something was amiss.

"Someone has dropped a half dead werewolf on the Seethe's door," He started as I made a mental note to ask him about his current political affiliations later, right now I was more concerned with the half-dead wolf. My heart started to beat furiously and the silence in the room reminded me that there were two other wolves with me who had overheard that bit as well. "But not one of Adam's, don't worry." A bit of the weight was lifted off my shoulders and a glance at Warren and Ben told me that they were feeling the same way.

"Who then?" I asked before I could stop myself. It was really unlikely that Stefan knew who this wolf was if it didn't belong to Adam. Heck, I wasn't sure Adam would even know. The only one we could really be certain of when it came time for identification was Bran, the Marrok.

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Marsilia says she is one of the Debellatio. We have stabilized her but you but that's about all we can do. You and Adam need to come and get her." Another pause. "And call the Marrok." He hung up and I turned to the others at the table. It seemed our scrabble game was over now. Warren, always a step ahead, already had his phone to his ear as he dialed Bran. I got up from the table and made my way up to Adam's home office to tell him what was going on – Jesse and Ben at my heels.

"What's going on?" The pink-haired teenager asked. I had forgotten that she was the only one at the table who hadn't been able to hear the other side of the conversation. "The Vampires found an almost dead wolf on their doorstep that doesn't belong to Adam. They want us to come and get her." I luckily didn't have to repeat the story one more time because the aforementioned Alpha, met us on the stairs.

His face was hard and confused. He must have felt that something was amiss through our mate bond – which I had a tendency to leave wide open sometimes. "Stefan also mentioned something called the Debellatio but that's about all I got out of him."

"We'll get her. Ben – grab the keys to the Escalade in the garage."Ben would be going with us, I guessed, for extra support in case it was needed. The Escalade was one of the vehicle's in Adam's possession that didn't get used that often. It was specially outfitted in the bag to hold and transport a violent or injured wolf without injury to anyone else involved.

The Brit trotted off down the stairs ahead of us and we followed, meeting Warren at the bottom. "Just got off the phone with Bran who Stefan also suggested we call - " I knew this, but he was repeating it for Adam who hadn't heard the phone call. "He seemed very shocked and very concerned. He said he'll be down before the night is over." I didn't doubt it. As the Marrok, he needed to be all over the country and had to get there as quick as possible. He had a jet or two that he employed for this very reason.

"Jesse, stay here and tell Aurielle where we went. I think she's downstairs. Have her call Darryl and get him over here for when we get back. Ben and Warren, I guess you'll be coming with us as it seems you've already elected yourselves to help."

We climbed into the massive SUV and Adam pulled out of the garage. I tried to process everything that was going on. We were driving to the Seethe's residence to pick up a nearly dead werewolf that didn't belong to Adam. She was someone though if both Marsilia, who wasn't a wolf herself, and Bran, who was the Alpha of all Alphas in the United States and a very old wolf, had heard of her. So many questions needed to be answered.


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn't dark when we pulled up at the Seethe's house but I knew from experience that some of the older vampires, my friend Stefan included, could wake up early. "Well..." I heard Adam start to ask as he parked the car and the four of us made our way to the front door. What do you do in this situation? Previously when I've been here, it had been dark That wasn't really the case right now. And since vampires had that whole sun thing...

The door swung open on it's own accord. Creepy, I thought, but useful. That saved us the trouble of wondering what the proper etiquette was. The door slammed closed behind us and we were met by Stefan. "Come, follow me." There was no hi or hello or even a Sorry, I didn't call you these past few months. It must be a serious situation.

He led us to a room that was used for medical purposes and since I was guessing that the vampires themselves didn't really have a use for it, it was probably to keep their human sheep in decent enough shape. A bloodied mass of fur was laying on the table and behind that stood Marsilia. Next to her was Wulfe, the vampire wizard who appeared nothing more than a young boy. Go figure they would be the only three to be awake at such an early hour.

I noticed that Marsilia looked worried – uh oh, not good. What could worry a big, bad vampire like her? "She is alive but just barely. I'm afraid we aren't suited to deal with those in her condition." Her voice was low, just above a whisper but there wasn't a single person in the room who would have a problem hearing her.

"You were right," Adam said, after he stepped forward to get a closer look at the wolf on the table. "She isn't one of mine. Do you have any idea who dropped her on your doorstep? Or why for that matter. I'd have guessed they would have left her for one of mine to find before they dropped her here."

This time it was Wulfe. I think out of all the vampires I had met since moving to the Tri-Cities, he was the one who creeped me out the most. There was just something absolutely bizarre and not right with him. "The surveillance showed nothing and there were no scents associated with the scene but we think the reason she found herself here was because it served as a warning – to both vampires and werewolves alike."

There was silence throughout the room. No one spoke – what do you even say to that? No one even made any attempt at conversation, so I guess that left it up to me. "What do you know about her besides the fact that she's almost dead?" Like my brothers in the wild, I know how to be a little bit pushy at all the right times.

Wulfe handed Marsilia an old looking book and the vampire woman preceded to pass it to Adam. Even though I had asked the question, he was the most dominant (and important) wolf currently in the room. There were tiny illustrated pictures of about 30 wolves on the pages – each more strangely marked than the next. I imagined that they would have easily been recognizable in their time.

He held it lower so Warren and Ben could see the pages as well. Debellatio was written across the top in fancy gothic script and under each picture there was a title. I glanced back at the mystery wolf on the table. She was smaller than any of the wolves currently in the room and a lot less – wolf on steroids. Her canine form, save for the orange and black brindle coat with the grey stomach, paws and muzzle, would have looked natural. Almost.

Surely enough, the first picture on the page looked like the wolf in front of us – minus all the blood, missing chunks of flesh and the generally horrible condition she was in right now.

"Imperatrix." Ben read, saying outloud what we were all going over. "It's in bloody latin!"

Now, I had never taken Latin in school so I was stuck a bit between a rock and hard place here. I had always felt that German would be more appropriate and, to me, it had. My ex-boss and now good friend, Zee, was German and used it frequently.

But German didn't help me here – they were two completely different language families. The wolves were silent but it seemed the vampires knew more about the ancient language. "Commander... female. Roughly." Stefan added softly, as he took the book back and set it on the table behind him.

"The Debellatio was an ancient, ancient order – mostly wolves, but a few fae and vampires thrown in over the years. It was like... your Marrok, but over the whole world, in a sense. But they all disappeared and died out before anyone in this room was born, and then a few years. No one really knows what happened. And we could be wrong about who she is but it's not every day you see a coat like that, covered in blood or not."

Warren, Ben and I looked to Adam. What do you even do now? I could see he was thinking everything over and I could feel that he was frustrated. I slipped my hand in his and squeezed it, reminding him that there was an audience that was waiting for him. "Right, thank you for your help. We'll take her back from here and since apparently involves you as well, we'll contact you in we find out anymore."

Marsilia nodded, "Thank you." It was only then that I realized how serious the vampires must think this situation to be. They hadn't searched us for weapons upon entering the house like they had the past few times, Marsilia hadn't tried to entrap Warren, Ben or Adam. I felt a dark feeling rising in my chest. This was bad.

Night had fallen, so Stefan walked us out as the boys moved the injured wolf from the table to the cage in the back of the car. I highly doubted that she would wake up and freak out on us but it was better to be safe then sorry. As they were getting her loaded, Stefan caught my arm and held me back. "Mercy... be careful. This warning is more serious then I think you realize. If this is The Imperatrix then this is a war that dates back centuries. Please call us when you know more and I know Marsilia won't say it so I guess it's up to me – call me if you need help." He nodded and there was a whoosh of air that filled the void where he had previously occupied.

"You too, Stefan..." I muttered knowing that he couldn't hear me. If this had Stefan frightened, then there was every reason for the wolves to be worried as well. We needed to find out more about this Debellatio though. Even growing up in the Marrok's pack, I had never heard of it. Speaking of which, I remembered that Bran would be waiting for us back at the house when we brought our new charge back. Maybe he would have some answers. I climbed in the seat next to Adam and we drove away – no one saying a word.


End file.
